So, now that the Xoom has flopped, can we finally agree that "tablet" means "iPad"?

Hospitals are incredibly dirty places. Best to just not think about it.

Isn't it this attitude in the US which has led to the MRSA problem in the first place?

No, that would be the overuse of antibiotics.

True.

And this isn't just a US thing. There is a common misconception of hospitals being sterilized top to bottom, but that's not how it is. Some rooms will be like an operating room or an isolation room, but they are the exception and not relevant to this discussion as there wouldn't be a computer in those rooms anyway. Your normal patient room gets wiped down and mopped, but that's it.

I wouldn't put much stock in that. Judging from my wife's experiences I suspect she would say that the odds of new software being an improvement are no better than 50-50 as far as usability goes. (That's second hand, mind you).

And the "not afraid to change" stuff will be gone for precisely one release anyway. There's nothing magical about iPads that will make IT (especially in a hospital setting) any less conservative.

True about the one release, but there's quite a few iPad apps that I use that are clear improvements over their legacy counterparts. It's not assured, but moving to the tablet is an opportunity to hit the reset button to some degree. In the cases where that is embraced and succeeds, it's not surprising to hear people say that the tablet is more productive, even when the hardware specs might lead you to think that it should be less productive.

I've not seen any. Because you don't have a precise pointer (big ol' fat fingers) you can't have the same function density like you can in most apps. A row of icons just won't work (or it will, but only about 1/3 as many). Plus any precise selection. Everything is a work-around do the poor precision of the pionting device.

Based on the leaks we’ve seen of the new Kindle Fire’s interface, Android's been buried even farther into the background — a casual user may not even know that it’s there. Android on the Fire is about application compatibility, not Android itself, and it highlights Amazon's decision to fight a battle between ecosystems, not operating systems. But that's not such an easy choice to make, and Amazon's success with the Fire just highlights the uncomfortable truth for Google: Android's failure on tablets has created an enormous opportunity for Microsoft.

They also seem to think Android tablets are on their last leg.

Quote:

Google's strategy worked brilliantly on phones, but the window for success on tablets is closing rapidly. After all, most Android OEMs are also Microsoft OEMs, and Windows 8 and Windows RT have enormous potential to succeed as proper competitors to the iPad. And the value proposition for OEMs is strong: why spend money on building Android up into a laptop replacement when Microsoft is already spending billions developing Windows? Why try to create an independent ecosystem to compete with giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google when you can just tap into the enormous base of Windows customers? Why continue to dance around the sorry state of Android tablet apps when an explosion of Windows don't-call-it-Metro apps is looming on the horizon? And, perhaps most cynically, why continue taking the risk on Android tablets when every major Android OEM is paying patent licensing fees to Microsoft anyway?

I thought Nilay's article was smart. It points out the challenges that the FIre poses not just to Google's control but to the Android ecosystem as a whole. If the only tablet that can succeed in a big way is an extremely low-margin one from Amazon, who uses their own increasingly skinned version of Android to drive digital media sales and their own gatekept apps... the competition may well say screw it, and move to W8/RT.

That's Microsoft's dream, anyway. But I don't think it's necessarily all that far-fetched. Both Google and Android as a whole (on tablets) face a serious challenge.

(p.s. ZZ and EH2, I will respond to you guys about why I think that idea that everyone is out there busy all day "creating content" at work *or* at home is one of the oddest, wrongest misconceptions going in the BF - just don't have time to wade into just now.)

(p.s. ZZ and EH2, I will respond to you guys about why I think that idea that everyone is out there busy all day "creating content" at work *or* at home is one of the oddest, wrongest misconceptions going in the BF - just don't have time to wade into just now.)

When you do so, don't take the concept too literally, at least when responding to me.

I think it is daft that most jobs (the ones that aren't hamburger flipping) can all be reduced to paint-by-the-numbers form filling.

People get paid, sooner or later, to add value and it just doesn't seem to me very plausible that beyond the true "order clerks" that jobs lack content that needs to be created. People are paid to produce something and that something cannot be entirely captured by some sort of canned software that knows all.

Doctors may be able to write better prescriptions with paint-by-the-numbers interfaces, but they still have to (so far as I know) write some sort of clinical note, argue with insurance companies, etc. either on the phone or via some sort of typed interface.

To the extent this is true, then the tablet interfaces, as I so far see them, aren't adequate, one way or another, to do this part of the job.

To me, these interfaces really are consumption oriented -- they don't seem to me optimized for any sort of typing nor any sort of fine motor control of anything. Precisely because they must be so radically simplified, they tend to foreclose choices and avoid detailed input -- and this is precisely what distinguishes the workplace from someone sitting in their living room.

I thought Nilay's article was smart. It points out the challenges that the FIre poses not just to Google's control but to the Android ecosystem as a whole. If the only tablet that can succeed in a big way is an extremely low-margin one from Amazon, who uses their own increasingly skinned version of Android to drive digital media sales and their own gatekept apps... the competition may well say screw it, and move to W8/RT.

The Kindle Fire is as yet only available in the US. Even if the new model becomes as widely distributed as the Kindle e-readers it will still only be available in a relatively small number of markets. That's the problem with selling a tablet as a conduit for content, in markets where you don't have those content deals it is nearly useless. So there's still a lot of space for Android tablets in most other countries, and as Windows RT requirements are a bit too high to compete at the low end of the market I don't see manufacturers giving up just yet. If anything recent trade-shows suggest the tablet manufacturers are ramping up.

Why should they lug even a 7 incher around if there's a PC waiting for them in the room?

Because Roaming Profiles suck. I've done IT in a lot of hospitals (I'm doing it now) and most of them have exactly this setup, with doctors using multiple PCs in different offices. The problem they run into is that their desktop environment isn't there, so they either have to waste tons of bandwidth and disk space moving Roaming Profiles around or they have to waste lots of bandwidth using Windows Terminals so they have the same environment.

If they had something light enough to carry they wouldn't have this problem.

To me it is looks equally worrying trying to work with e.g. Photoshop on a 10 inch screen (i.e. the so far announced Windows 8 tablets); is there a large group of users who are looking forward to that?

Announced touchscreen devices go from 10" all the way to 32" all-in-ones. There is at least one 17" touchscreen laptop. I'm told there is a 50" all-in-one in development, I don't think it has been announced yet. Nobody is making a huge (13"+) tablet for Windows 8 for the same reason nobody has made one previously, they're too heavy.

That's actually true and I wonder why that is. Is 7" too small for the start screen or what?

I thought the point of Windows Phone 8 was to bring it into alignment with Windows 8 (or at least RT). WP8 does the metro interface just fine on a 4" screen.

This whole strategy is entirely too muddled. It seems like RT shares the same hardware foundation as the phone and the same software foundation as Windows, and yet can't seem to bridge the two at all. As an average consumer, I wouldn't have a fucking clue what the capabilities of each of these platforms is.

(p.s. ZZ and EH2, I will respond to you guys about why I think that idea that everyone is out there busy all day "creating content" at work *or* at home is one of the oddest, wrongest misconceptions going in the BF - just don't have time to wade into just now.)

No worries. I think it is HIGHLY dependant upon the industry, company, and position. I know that nearly everyone in our front offices are content creators. The plant guys not so much.

No worries. I think it is HIGHLY dependant upon the industry, company, and position. I know that nearly everyone in our front offices are content creators. The plant guys not so much.

Keep in mind, though, that business has been busy shedding the kind of "plant guys" who would favor the paint-by-the-numbers software. There's probably a very large residual market there, but those are the first world manufacturing jobs with the biggest bull's eye on them -- have been for some time. Do they get upgraded is one of the side questions for this discussion. Do China and Indonesia et al. give theirs tablets? Are they ruggedized enough, too?

If they had something light enough to carry they wouldn't have this problem.

So, all I have to do to be a cardiologist in your world, then, is to steal an iPad. Unless, of course, for security and accountability reasons, the tablet "grows" profiles also.

iPad's don't have roaming Profiles (do you even know what I'm talking about?) and even if they did, they wouldn't be needed because the user is carrying around the Profile, like a laptop.

Security, authentication, NAC, etc. are separate issues. Security provisioning on iOS is one of the things slowing down rollout, if it wasn't for that we'd have iPads all over the hospitals I'm sure. I'm hoping there will be a cheap Windows 8 tablet we can deploy instead.

iPad's don't have roaming Profiles (do you even know what I'm talking about?) and even if they did, they wouldn't be needed because the user is carrying around the Profile, like a laptop.

Security, authentication, NAC, etc. are separate issues. Security provisioning on iOS is one of the things slowing down rollout, if it wasn't for that we'd have iPads all over the hospitals I'm sure. I'm hoping there will be a cheap Windows 8 tablet we can deploy instead.

Security, authentication are not "separate"; not in any enterprise I know anything about.

The enterprise will allow some of this stuff, for a while, for that great new shiny but eventually, (not so eventually, really) you're either going to have a built-in thumbprint scanner or old fashioned passwords.

Indeed, the "slowing down rollout" suggests the "empire" is already striking back, as well it should.

The simple fact is, the world you are citing, where doctors carry tablets in lieu of signing a la PC, isn't going to exist for very long. There are important reasons for the fact that a lot of people have to sign in a billion times a day and the tablet isn't going to remove them.

Physical security has never been enough; not since around 1990 or so. The PC world started out without the "user" concept, but guess what, the enterprise demanded it and got it. It started around the "Windows for Workgroups" era. Windows 3.1.1 (!)

I don't think it is the problems of scale that keep textbook prices artificially high. It's the publishers.

It depends on what you mean by textbooks. I don't know what they charge for like elementary textbooks--but do keep in mind that they can use them for many years. At college, it was absolutely a scale issue. YOu would have a 400 page general chemistry book that was $30. It was so cheap because they would print thousands upon thousands of copies. The senior level text book that was 100 pages would be $200. But then they would only print hundreds or thousands.

Tablets will help deal with the problems of scale that keep textbook prices artificially high -- and heavy.

Kids may still write papers on the PC, but as displacers of textbooks, I can't see what is going to stop tablets from pushing those big, heavy, short run books aside.

Tablets address the problem of stagnant content. When large states like Texas do a single content buy for the entire state, it set stakes that drive a lot of publishers out. The cost of publishing a textbook is pretty low - about $3 for a standard K-12 hardbound text. But the publishers serve as bottlenecks to the market. Independent publishers and authors really don't stand a chance here, and so the big four really get to dictate prices. There's not much in the way of competition.

But once you cut out the source/print/distribution model, you can change how you do it. States and school districts can hire their own people to write textbooks if they want. Giving more local control works because there is no economy of scale benefits to super large orders.

And kids will write papers on the iPad. My son types faster on the iPad than he does on his laptop. Tablet typing is slow for you and I because it's not how we learned. For people that learn to type on those kinds of devices, they can be remarkably fast. I'd put him at 40-50 WPM on the iPad, which is more than acceptable for school. He'll never hit 100 WPM like I can do on my laptop, but that's not a goal kids need to hit anyway. He's faster on the iPad because his hands are small and he can reach the letters without major arm movements - which he needs to do on a standard 101 and which throws off his accuracy. 101s were designed for adults, not kids.

I don't think it is the problems of scale that keep textbook prices artificially high. It's the publishers.

It's not the problems of printing that keeps the price high - but the publishers definitely introduce an artificial economy of scale. You really are better off with big orders, but it's almost completely artificial as a means to keep smaller publishers out. Breaking the big 3 is the key to opening up the textbook market.

Roaming profiles are about the users documents/files and software settings, not authentication.

From early in your own link:

Quote:

that allows users with a computer joined to a Windows Server domain to log on to any computer on the same network and access their documents and have a consistent desktop experience, such as applications remembering toolbar positions and preferences, or the desktop appearance staying the same.

My bold.

Exactly what are you arguing about here? Security and authentication looks built-in to me, without even reading very far.

You have to know who someone is before you hand over the files that person is authorized to see.

A "roaming profile" is just another form of "user" (in fact, the full title appears to be "roaming user profile") except it apparently is tied to a network file system. So what? The key issue is that a logon is still needed.

It will also be required, sooner or later, for enterprise tablets. Physical possession of a device has never been accepted for very long. Whether there's a local hardfile or a network on the other side of the logon has never been the critical issue.

Amazon is killing it with the new Fires. Just $159 (!) for the upgraded model, $199 for a model with a high-dpi 7" screen, $299 for a 8.9" high-dpi model, and finally $499 for a 8.9" high-dpi model with LTE (just $50/year (!), though capped at 250MB/mo). A bunch of new software features that make it more competitive against iOS, as well (Whispersync for games, and parental controls), though the UI design looks a bit pedestrian. Seemingly nicer HW design as well, as well some alluring Wi-Fi improvements. A very impressive lineup.

I don't think it is the problems of scale that keep textbook prices artificially high. It's the publishers.

It depends on what you mean by textbooks. I don't know what they charge for like elementary textbooks--but do keep in mind that they can use them for many years. At college, it was absolutely a scale issue. YOu would have a 400 page general chemistry book that was $30. It was so cheap because they would print thousands upon thousands of copies. The senior level text book that was 100 pages would be $200. But then they would only print hundreds or thousands.

Boy, I don't remember that at all. Textbooks for my college years (1994-2000) stayed pretty constant in price, with even bog-standard freshman-level chem/physics/calc texts going for $80-120. I've never seen required texts as cheap as $30, except for things like small English anthologies or actual individual paperback of literature/theatre. But in the sciences/math/engineering, that seems to stay pretty constant. Until you get into higher-level/graduate classes, where you're mostly buying coursepacks/notes that the prof has put together, rather than textbooks, and those tend to be a bit cheaper.

As far as the new Fires go, yes, the hardware looks impressive, but I'm more wondering about the software. The UI on the original Fire was pretty janky, IMO, and in the opinion of a lot of other people I know who used/owned one. Are the new ones still based on Gingerbread? It'd be really nice if they updated the underlying Android version to ICS or JB, if only for the UI smoothness improvements.

Agreed lookmark, and the fact that Amazon doesn't make money off the hardware bodes very badly for OEMs that do: Amazon is setting a very low ceiling for what a good, feature rich tablet should cost in the eyes of the public.

The only negative I see here for Amazon is that the distribution of these devices is still very limited, but that's picking nits. Those Kindles look amazing across the board. Gonna preorder the Paperwhite model tomorrow.

Amazon is killing it with the new Fires. Just $159 (!) for the upgraded model, $199 for a model with a high-dpi 7" screen, $299 for a 8.9" high-dpi model, and finally $499 for a 8.9" high-dpi model with LTE (just $50/year (!), though capped at 250MB/mo). A bunch of new software features that make it more competitive against iOS, as well (Whispersync for games, and parental controls), though the UI design looks a bit pedestrian. A very impressive lineup.

It does look good. But when are they going to be available internationally?

Amazon is killing it with the new Fires. Just $159 (!) for the upgraded model, $199 for a model with a high-dpi 7" screen, $299 for a 8.9" high-dpi model, and finally $499 for a 8.9" high-dpi model with LTE (just $50/year (!), though capped at 250MB/mo). A bunch of new software features that make it more competitive against iOS, as well (Whispersync for games, and parental controls), though the UI design looks a bit pedestrian. A very impressive lineup.

It does look good. But when are they going to be available internationally?

Damn you Bezos, all these cool things that we can't get!

Answer is probably "never". These devices exist to sell Amazon content. International rights to digital content are a mess.

A "roaming profile" is just another form of "user" (in fact, the full title appears to be "roaming user profile") except it apparently is tied to a network file system. So what? The key issue is that a logon is still needed.

You really should have read farther. The Wikipedia article describes what I'm talking about in elaborate detail. The problem is about moving the content around, not authentication.

Let me take the iPad out of the equation to simplify. iPads do not exist. Apple does not exist.

This is ALL Windows 7 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain.

The two scenarios we're looking at are:

1) A user moving around to multiple physical desktop computers.

2) A user physically carrying around a laptop.

A "roaming profile" is a network file share that contains all the users documents, a copy of their user registry, and backup and system settings. A roaming profile may be **many gigabytes**.

When a user logs into a desktop in scenario 1 above, a copy of their Profile is moved from the share onto the local computer. Again, this may be **many gigabytes**. And each time they log into a different workstation, **another copy** of the roaming profile is created.

So roaming profiles cause problems in that they use up tons of bandwidth on the network moving profiles around, slow down logins, and eat up space on numerous workstations local hard drives.

Now scenario 2, which is a laptop, solves this problem by moving the computer around rather than the profile around.

It's not the problems of printing that keeps the price high - but the publishers definitely introduce an artificial economy of scale. You really are better off with big orders, but it's almost completely artificial as a means to keep smaller publishers out. Breaking the big 3 is the key to opening up the textbook market.

Which is exactly what handing students a tablet does. Now what do the publishers do? Where' their "hook"? They don't own the copyright to these things for the most part; the authors do.

The authors, in the majority of cases, would have nothing much preventing them from producing an eBook edition at whatever price benefitted them.

Looks like a classic "cut out the middleman" to me. And, not a few professors have always been chafing at the problems involved with getting their courses published, especially at the graduate school level. Not all of them are in it for the textbook money, to say the least.

State governments at the secondary school level are going to see the advantage here, big time, as well.

A lot of smaller states are chafing at the fact that places like Texas and California tend to limit what gets published.

But, with no real economy of scale problem anymore, it wouldn't be all that hard to do an end-run around these problems.

It wouldn't be totally easy or pretty at that level (the school would have to be willing to deal with the check-in and check-out of tablets and dealing with kids throwing them against walls -- though they have to do that with books as well).

The economics of this could get very interesting. Won't happen overnight, but the leverage alone might change the way textbooks work.

Particularly the 8.9" HD, it might even be a better buy than the iPad mini.

The 8.9" will suffer from the same ereader problem that the iPad does - it's just a little too heavy. The iPad mini is presumably designed to address that. In that way, I think we need to look at these as different (but overlapping) markets. Instead of thinking of them at 7" and 10", think of them as ¾ lb and 1.5 lb tablets (the Nexus 7 is 12 oz, the iPad 3 is 1.4lbs). The 7" tablets weigh roughly the same as a paperback book. The 10" ones roughly the same as a hardbound book. The markets for books are different and similarly overlapping.

Unfortunately, this is not really the case. A lot of the high prices for textbooks are due to the authors.

ZeroZanzibar wrote:

State governments at the secondary school level are going to see the advantage here, big time, as well.

Right now, secondary schools pay $500 or more per year, per student for textbooks. If they can sell tablets to students (a $500 tablet for $50) they can minimize shrinkage and save money, mainly through piracy. Textbook publishers aren't offering any discounts on digital textbooks at all, so the only way to really save money is piracy. And secondary schools may actually have fair use exemptions here, because this is clearly academic use (but not "research").

Faced with shrinking budgets, many schools are probably willing to risk it.

Except there is little or no justification for a hardcover book in an eBook setting.

Only the most specialized books (e.g. those with large, extensive illustrations) will want or need the larger size.

A 7 inch tablet, while as light as a paper back, is actually about the same size as many hard back books now. As well as the size of the many hybrid books that are "kind of" hardcover, except they don't have the true "hard" cover, but do have the larger page. I'm thinking here, for instance, of a lot of computer reference books.

I see the larger Fire as an attempt to go towards a more "app" oriented experience.